Thursday February 25, 2016
By CECILIA KANG and MATT APUZZO
The White House summoned technology executives to a meeting at the Justice Department. Megan Smith, the national chief technology officer, was among the speakers as were officials from national security and counterterrorism.
J. DAVID AKE / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Obama administration officials met with executives of major technology and entertainment companies in Washington on Wednesday to discuss combating the activities of violent extremists online, according to industry and government officials.The meeting was called by the White House, according to a person who attended and who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The session began with government officials admitting their shortcomings in tackling the explosion of activity by terrorist groups online.John P. Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security, started the meeting by saying that federal law enforcement had struggled to reach audiences that were responding to recruitment by violent extremists, according to the participant. Nick Rasmussen, director of the national counterterrorism center, lauded some social media platforms for aggressively taking down accounts of suspected terrorists.
The hourslong meeting, which took place at the Justice Department, also included speeches by Megan Smith, the national chief technology officer; and Jen Easterly, the senior director for counterterrorism.
The event was another step toward coordinating government and private sector efforts on national security. After the mass shootings in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., last year, the White House and presidential candidates have pushed for Internet firms to clamp down on the use of social media by extremists to recruit new members, organize and broadcast their demands.
Last month, the White House and tech chief executives held a security meeting in San Jose, Calif., to discuss the use of social media by terrorist groups and encryption practices by tech firms to keep consumer data private. Secretary of State John Kerry also met with Hollywood studio executives earlier this month, and entertainment firms have been asked by government officials to help create “counternarratives” to those of terrorists on social media networks.
Wednesday’s gathering was attended by company executives but few, if any, chief executives. Participants included representatives from Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr and Microsoft.
The meeting brought together tech companies in Washington at a time of heightened tension between the administration and Silicon Valley. Apple and the United States government have engaged in a public fight over access to the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters. Some of the tech firms have expressed cautious support of Apple.
Many of the tech companies are willing to work on ways to combat violent extremism on social media. The meeting on Wednesday, called the “Madison Valleywood Project,” in reference to the participation of marketing, tech and entertainment firms, focused on terrorists’ use of social media to organize and recruit members for violent extremism.
The subject of encryption and Apple’s resistance to being ordered to break through its encrypted software for law enforcement was not on the agenda.
Some social media companies have stepped carefully with counterterrorism efforts, saying it is technologically difficult to weed out true terrorist activity. They have also expressed fears of stifling the free speech of users. Others, including Twitter, have started to more aggressively shut down the accounts of suspected terrorists. Twitter had a representative at the meeting.
“Over the past year, organizations and companies across a range of industries have asked how they might contribute to efforts to counter radicalization and recruitment activities by ISIL and other violent extremists,” said Marc Raimondi, the Justice Department’s national security spokesman, using a term for the Islamic State.
“The U.S. government recognizes that these private sector actors, which include N.G.O.s, social media companies and content producers, have a crucial role to play in developing creative and effective ways to undermine terrorist recruiting and counter the call to violence,” Mr. Raimondi said.